


Prediction

by DarkJediQueen



Series: Full Moon Fic(let) [17]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Bittersweet Ending, Full Moon Ficlet, M/M, Not Happily Ever After, One-Shot, assassination attempt, past relationship, werewolves are known
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:27:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26421106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkJediQueen/pseuds/DarkJediQueen
Summary: Stiles didn't realize that someone thought that killing him would make his ex-fiancé happy. Not until he's waking up to find that he has been nearly killed to prove something to Derek Hale.
Relationships: past Stiles Stilinski/Derek Hale
Series: Full Moon Fic(let) [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1756846
Comments: 49
Kudos: 247
Collections: Full Moon Ficlet Prompt #397: Prediction





	Prediction

**Author's Note:**

> **Year** : Future  
>  **Spoilers** : Everything  
>  **Notes** : One-Shot for Full Moon Ficlet. No more will be written for this.  
>  **Beta** : Grammarly

Stiles Stilinski grabbed the closest drink to him as he moved through the room. He had his earwig placed and was listening to the chatter from the team members who were watching around the edges of the room. The room was full of werewolves, who were all a possible target. Stiles had looked at the guest list already, and there were quite a few men and women in there that could be the target. It was why the event runners were working with the FBI on the whole protection aspect.

If Stiles could have made a prediction based on what he knew of the attendees, he had would have taken that person out of the room to see what would happen. Their assassin was good at mixing in with the rest of the people in there. Magic was the only way to figure out what was going on, and it was why Stiles was in the room mixing with everyone. His earwig was hidden by a runic spell so that no one would feel the magic of it.

"Stiles," a voice said.

Stiles turned and looked at who said his name, and he stopped breathing for a few seconds. He shook his head, and Derek's face fell. Stiles was going to kill whoever hadn't told him that the Hales were going to be there. The names were not on the list. He looked around for the event runner and saw that she was talking to Talia Hale. There had been such a look of happiness on Derek's face before Stiles had shaken his head.

"How many are here?" Stiles asked.

"What?" Derek looked confused.

"Tell me how many of your family are here," Stiles demanded.

Derek's face hardened. He crossed his arms over his chest.

"Tell me why I should tell you."

"Ugh," Stiles groaned, and he turned around to find his second. The man was looking at him, having heard Stiles talking to someone. "I need eyes on Talia, Greg, Peter, Laura, Cora, and Spencer Hale. Spencer is human, look up his image and get him the fuck out of here. Cover the rest, send the two back-ups teams to find a werewolf, and stay with them like glue. Tell them that Mischief sent you, and they won't fight to be covered by you." Stiles looked at Derek. Who had a gobsmacked look on his face.

"What about the last son, Derek?" Stiles second asked.

"I have eyes on him, and he's not leaving my sight. Spencer is the most vulnerable target with his humanity. The rest we have ways of saving them."

"Stiles, what is going on?" Derek asked, and he acted like he was going to reach out and touch.

"Stilinski, Alpha Hale is requesting to speak to you," one of the other agents said. She relayed the location of where they were.

"Derek, I will explain when I talk to your mother. For now, you come with me, or my team will knock your ass out and stick you in the holding cell that is meant to hold your kind. Where is your mother?" Stiles asked. He knew that Derek could hear what was being said over the comms. It was mostly silent now; just check-ins when one of the agents found them.

"Cora is not here, but everyone else is." Derek pointed to where the agent had said Talia was. She was standing with the agent blocking her from most of the angles that an assassin would use for sniping.

Stiles waved for Derek to go first, despite Derek having a better chance of hearing something going off.

"Agent Stilinski," Talia Hale said as Stiles followed Derek.

"Alpha Hale. I heard my second start to tell you what was going on," Stiles said.

"Yes. I wasn't aware that this was going on. My event runner did not tell me."

"Find her," Stiles said. Two other agents chimed in that they would heading out to find her. "I was not told that the Hales would be here anyway. So she's either part of this or something else is going on."

"I see. This whole event is because of us. I'm giving the speech about my heir as Alpha."

Stiles nodded his head and then stopped. He looked between Talia and Derek. The last that Stiles had known, Laura was the heir, and she was being trained for it. Though that was nearly ten years ago and there had to be a few things that changed. Since then, Talia has stepped up as the leader of California's supernatural beings as each state chose who they wanted, a de facto governor. She worked closely with a lot of people in the government, and Stiles knew that she had kept Beacon Hills as her home, making it the capital city for the Supernatural. Stiles knew the names of every single member who had stepped up across the country to give the Supernatural a voice while they were being weaved into the government so that they had just as much representation as the rest of the people in the country.

"Well, then I would say that you two have the highest threat profile other than Spencer. Let's get you and her chosen into a room to discuss what we want to do. I do not want to stop what you are doing, I just want to do it safely."

"Of course," Talia said. Her eyes darted to Derek, and Stiles saw him nod.

"Who is your chosen?" Stiles asked.

"Derek," Talia said.

"Then let's get out of here." Stiles tried to keep his shock to himself.

When Stiles had known Derek better, Derek had wanted nothing to do with the mantle of Alpha. Though it had been a decade and Stiles was vastly different.

"Spencer is secure with Peter in a warded room," Stiles said.

"Thank you. Cora is at home with Laura's twins."

Stiles nodded his head. He had sent flowers to Laura's husband's funeral as well as a massive donation to the charity business that he had run. Stiles had been working a case that he couldn't leave in the middle for a funeral. His father had delivered his condolences in person, and Laura had called him days later, and they had talked. Stiles had stayed friendly with the Hales, despite Derek breaking his heart and leaving him without a single word on why. Stiles still wasn't sure, but now was not the time to go down that road.

The team had secured the room hours before, and they were the only ones with access.

"I have the event runner," Stiles' second said over the comms just as he got into the room. He stopped and waited to listen to the rest. "Suicide."

"Are you sure?" Stiles asked.

"Yes, it's magical. There is no way that someone else killed her. It's her own magic, low-level as it is."

"Then she was either ordered to do it, or she did it because of betraying her own kind. Get CSU to double-check everything. I want this place locked down now."

"You made it far in the FBI? Talia asked.

"Yes, Alpha Hale. I am the Unit Chief for my section of the BAU. It's more recent, happened six months ago. We are still getting used to me leading after our former left."

"I've followed your career. You have done wonders with your job."

"Thank you. Now Derek is your heir, what does Laura think of that?" Stiles asked.

"Stiles," Derek hissed.

"Derek, he has to ask to find out where this threat is coming from. Someone gave us up, son. Laura is actually the one that gave up her place. She wants to focus on her children and her husband's charity. The death of him changed her."

Stiles nodded his head. He could see that. The twins were a handful even when they were babies, and now that they were getting ready to head into teenage years soon, it wasn't going to get easier. The other two were younger, and Stiles had never met them. The twins wouldn't remember him, so he had never stopped in to talk to Laura in person even when he was back home to visit his father.

"I see. That helps me, that means that it's either a general threat against your whole family for being what you are or someone is aiming for someone specifically."

"You really thought that Laura would do something like target me?" Derek asked. There was anger in his tone, and Stiles wanted to snap at him. He reined that in because it wasn't something he could with his team listening in.

"No, I didn't, but I've not seen her in ten years, and I've not talked to her either. I don't know what eh death of her husband did to her, and before your mother told me that she gave it up, I thought that she could resent you for taking what was hers. She talked all the time of looking forward to being Alpha. I don't know your family." Stiles knew that both Derek and Talia caught the lie, but that wasn't Stiles' story to tell. He had no right to tell the two that he was close that they couldn't be close to him.

Derek had left him and took the family with him, but two, kind of three members had decided that they were not going to follow that.

"So, what are we going to do?"

"My team mage is going to come in an spell the both of you to protect you. Nothing that will kill you will get through it. Then we will go out and do what needs to be done while the rest of the Pack is protected. The spells have been laid on them. Spencer is also wearing a bulletproof vest, and Peter is going to stick to him."

"Good. Why are you not laying the spells?" Derek asked.

Stiles glared at Derek and looked to the door as he felt the team's mage come to him. The door opened, and Melinda entered the room. She looked tired, but not too tired. Stiles introduced her to Talia and Derek before he slipped out of the room to get a good look around the area. There was something horrible on the horizon. He could feel it, and his magic was reacting as well.

"You okay, Boss?" Melinda asked a few minutes later when she came to join him.

"Yeah, just...I wasn't expecting my life from home to invade my job here in San Francisco."

"I understand." Melinda's hand brushed his hand, and he felt the boost that came from being around her. Then it came a little more. She was giving a little more power to him, and after that, she would be tapped until she slept. "I'm going to head to the secure room and hang there. I don't have enough left to do anything."

"Go." Stiles tilted his head that. He could feel that Melinda was pretty much. That last little bit of power that she had given him had been a good bit, but it would do her no good with how tired she was otherwise. She had enough to still protect herself if needed but not enough to do much of anything else. He sighed and looked around the room. The hostess of the event stepped up to get everyone's attention. Stiles had been told this was just a networking meeting between the heads of the largest or most influential werewolf and other Supernatural packs in California, and given that he had lived there, it had been given to his team to take care of Stiles knew most of the Packs at least by reputation, if not in person knowing them. Being a good FBI agent had made him a small celebrity in California among the Supernatural, and then dating and being engaged to Derek Hale hadn't hurt that either.

Stiles reached up and patted at his chest. He felt the ring's solid weight that he had refused to give Derek back when Derek had broken off their relationship. If it had been a family heirloom, Stiles would have given it back, but it was something that Derek had made for him, at least the shaping of the metal. The stones had been set by a magical jeweler, and it had been the one constant in his life since he had been given it. It reminded him of what it was like to wholly love someone.

"Alpha Hale and her son are leaving," Melinda said.

"Thanks," Stiles whispered as he let his hand from down from his chest. He looked around again, resting his hand on his gun. He was feeling something coming. There was something massive coming toward them, and he wasn't sure what it was.

Talia gave a small speech and then introduced Derek formally to the people gathered there and watched from the live broadcast that was going on. Stiles knew that if there was something that was going happen to them, it would be now. He moved just as the few reporters that were there raised their arms. Then there was a rip of pain through his shoulder, followed by the crack of the sound of a sniper rifle going off. He looked up to see Derek taking his mother down on the stage, but his eyes were locked on Stiles before another pain slice happened. It was the last thing that Stiles knew.

* * *

Stiles felt the pain as he came back. He didn't move, though. He knew from the smell that he was in the hospital and that there were a few people in his room. He wanted to know who they were before he alerted them that he was awake.

"You can't tell me why someone went after my son?" Stiles' father asked.

Stiles wanted to facepalm. Him getting shot was probably all over the news. He just hoped that his team told his father first.

"It's an active and ongoing investigation," a strange voice said.

"That's horseshit," Noah said.

"It's not horseshit, Sheriff."

"Yes, it is," Trevor said as he came into the room. The creak of the door told Stiles that he wasn't caring about anything but getting in there.

"Sir," the strange person said.

"You are relieved. I would look up how to handle other law enforcement when you are using your people to guard one of ours. Sheriff Noah, Stiles was targeted because of his former friendship with the Hales, most especially his former sexual relationship with the oldest Hale male child of the Alpha."

"What?" Talia demanded.

"Well, we had intelligence that someone was going to be attacked at that meeting. We told that was what it was a meeting. Stiles worked it based on that. Any of the Alpha or other leaders there could be targeted with that. We were not told that you would be there or that you were the one who had requested the event that changed things. It seems that when everything was set into motion, it was with the knowledge that they were using you, Hales, to get Stiles there. It's why your name was kept out of the meeting information that we were given everything. I guess there was a slim chance that our team wouldn't be given the case. They wanted him there because they wanted Derek to see Stiles die."

"Who was it?" Derek asked.

"A woman that we have tracked to a few different aliases but the name that she used when you knew her was Jennifer Blake."

"Oh," Derek said.

Stiles heard the tone that he had. Jennifer had gone little nuts when Derek had broken things off with her. Stiles had thought that she had left the area after that, and no one had heard from her for a long time.

"She paid for an assassin to kill him in front of you to send you a message that she didn't like being replaced."

"And what is being told to the press?" Talia asked.

"As of now that we are still gathering information. Our team does all kinds of support for things like this, so we will see what our media liaison thinks is the best way to spin this. I know that the press was not the best when Mister and Hale and Stiles' relationship ended. We will try not to bring that into it. Now. I know that you are all worried about him, but I need to ask most of you to leave. Sheriff, you are more than welcome to stay. Stiles is awake, and he's been listening to this, and I need to talk to him about a few things I cannot talk about to anyone else."

"And me?"

"Our Section Chief has allowed me to read you into this as he will be staying here while he gets better, FBI orders."

"Fuck you," Stiles said to Trevor.

"Everyone out," Trevor said.

"So we figured out who has been sending the death threats to me," Stiles said.

"Yeah. We were just as shocked as I am sure you were when you heard the name."

Stiles nodded. He was still a little drugged, so he wasn't sure that he had fully grasped everything.

"So the Hales was a pawn. She must have wanted me dead pretty badly given that she used the meeting instead of just killing me."

"She wanted Derek to know that you were nothing. It was quite an interesting day. You've been out for twelve hours. You spent six in surgery to repair muscles and bone. You will make a full recovery, and the doctor used magic to make sure of it. We will figure out what else is going to be needed. You are to go with your father home, though, and stay in Beacon Hills while we hunt down the rest of Blake's crew to make sure that there is nothing else set up to kill you or the Hales."

"I hate hiding."

"I know you do. Maybe your dad will let you solve some of his cases. You are to be under watch all the time, and we figured that the Sheriff's department was the best for that given that no one will think anything of you being home and them being around you. Our guys will stick out there."

"You are also setting me up a little."

"Yes. I don't think it's anything you can't handle. We hope that someone comes after you there, and they get frustrated."

"Why does she want me dead?"

"We haven't fully figured that part out. She's quite crazy. Ranting about you stealing Derek from her even though she went crazy and attacked him long before that. So we will see what we can see. I've shipped your stuff to the station there already, your spare everything that you had with you. I've got clothes for you to go home in when it's time. You'll probably be released tomorrow."

"Where are Peter and Spencer?" Stiles asked.

"They and Cora are waiting outside. Cora left the kids at the station, and she got here in a lot less time than it probably should have taken, but she brought your father with her."

"She was the one who told me. I guess she was watching and heard you scream in pain even though the camera wasn't on you," Noah said.

"That sounds about right for her." Stiles moved a little and found that his body didn't hurt as much as he thought that it would. He laid his head back and wanted to just relax. "I'll agree to go home and not fight. If I'm not there to piss you off, you can work better and faster. I don't like it, but I know that otherwise, you will throw my ass in a cell in Quantico until it's all done, and no one wants that."

Trevor laughed, and he reached down to wiggle Stiles' foot. It wouldn't have been the first time that Trevor had done it the first had been before Stiles had even been the Unit Chief. Stiles trusted his team now to protect him but back when he had joined it, he hadn't. Stiles didn't trust easily, and it had just taken a hit when Derek had destroyed him.

Stiles had gotten lost in his work for a long time after that. It was why he was Unit Chief at his age. Stiles reached up to touch his necklace, but it wasn't there. He tried to sit up, and his father was there pushing him down and clasped his hand, and the ring was there.

"The chain got broken by the EMTs when they got to you to staunch the bleeding. I kept both, and the necklace is getting fixed," Trevor said.

"He gave it to me as soon as I got here. I've been wearing it. It's safe, Stiles," Noah said.

Stiles nodded his head. He was hurting now.

"I'll get the doctor, and he'll talk to you about what he did, and then you need to get some sleep. I think that they wanted you to sleep a little longer. It's still early."

"Yeah," Stiles said. He could feel his body fading fast. "I wanna see Spencer and them."

"Sure. I'll make sure they know to come in after the doctor leaves."

The doctor didn't take long to tell Stiles what was up with him, so he was still well up for the trio that came in. Cora looked worried while Spencer just looked devastated. Stiles held out his arm for him, and Spencer didn't even hesitate to crawl into the bed with him. Spencer was the one Hale family member that Stiles would have never left behind, that he brought Peter tagging along, and Cora with him had been good. Other than Derek, they were who Stiles was closer to. Cora never picked sides, and while sometimes that had kind of upset Spencer, Spencer had got to understand as he got older that Cora was just trying to keep both Stiles and Derek in her life the only way she knew how.

"I'm okay, Spencer. I'm okay."

"You were bleeding, and everyone was freaking out, and the stupid fucking agent who was with me wouldn't let me go over and check on you. I thought you were gonna die with strangers all around you. I bit him."

"You bit Clyde?" Stiles asked.

"Yeah, he didn't hurt me, just held onto me, and even when I broke the skin, he didn't let go. I calmed down, and when I finally did, he let me over to you. I was freaking out. Derek was pissed off. Mom was trying to get everyone calm, and your team was badasses. That one woman who can whistle loud was good at getting everyone out of there safely."

"They are a good bunch."

"I'm staying with you. I've already told mom that."

Stiles looked up at Peter. Who looked very sad. "What's up, Creeperwolf?" Stiles asked.

"Other than you refusing to keep your blood inside of your body? Nothing. I'll be going back with you as well. Talia wants someone from the family with you at all times. Cora and I have volunteered. I'll cover the hours when she's working, and I'll relax when she's covering you. The Pack is working on getting the house set up for you."

"House?" Stiles asked. He looked at Noah."

"Getting you set up in the dining room. It's close enough to the bathroom, but you are going to be stuck on whatever floor you are on for a while."

Stiles nodded and looked down at his leg that was wrapped from the bullet that had ripped through it. The first shot had been through his shoulder, the second his thigh, and then a third had grazed his arm after he was down.

"Talia has purchased a bed that will help you sit up and such, and it's being installed," Peter said.

"Ah, overprotective Alpha," Stiles said.

Peter had a look on his face as Stiles said that. Stiles brushed it off. He had hoped to call Talia mother one day and Greg father, but those plans had been dashed. He wasn't going to think it of anything other than her, making sure he was taken care of since it was her son who was the reason he was in the hospital like he was. Stiles wouldn't be able to function if it was anything else. Talia had never reached out to him after Derek had broken him. He had reached out to her, but everything had gone through his father even when Stiles called and left messages about various things. Stiles had taken that to mean that she had chosen to just drop him the same that Derek had done.

Cora was silent, but Stiles knew that she would talk to him when they were alone at some point. Cora looked at Noah and nodded at him before she tugged Peter with her out of the room. Having Spencer in bed with him had Stiles' eyes starting to droop. He cupped the back of Spencer's head and looked at his father. With Peter with them and Cora probably assigned to Stiles duty for her whole shifts, there were going to be at least three Hales around.

"Spencer's going to stay in your room, and Cora and Peter will trade-off sleeping on the pullout in the living room and the guest room depending who is watching you."

"Sounds good, Daddio," Stiles said. He looked down at Spencer and sighed before he closed his eyes. He wasn't getting rid of the human leech, and he knew it, and he really didn't care.

Stiles napped for a little while, and he wasn't sure what brought him out of his sleep, but he knew that something was wrong with the room. Something had changed. He dug into himself and puled on his magic, finding that thread that would protect him and Spencer. The younger man was still sleeping in bed with him.

"Stiles," Derek hissed, and the lights came on.

Stiles blinked in the light in the room, and he looked around to see that it wasn't the lights but the curtains. It was full day outside. Stiles let the magic go. He wasn't shocked that Derek had felt that. Derek had always very sensitive to the feel of Stiles' magic and knew he was about to cast.

"Sorry, I didn't notice you wake up, or I would have said something. Your father is picking up stuff to make sure that he has everything he needs to clean your wounds. Well, him and Peter. I offered to stay since Cora went ahead back to Beacon Hills to go to work since they are a little short with your father out at the moment. Peter's with him."

"Sorry for almost frying you."

"It's okay."

Stiles nodded his head and looked at Derek. He looked older, which was a given, but he looked like something else. Stiles wasn't sure what. His magic had recognized him as it had been so long since he had been around him.

"How are you feeling?" Derek asked.

"Like I got shot twice. Did some food get brought in for me?" Stiles asked as he looked around.

"Yeah, I have some pudding, tapioca, and some jello. I can get some broth brought in as well."

"No, no broth. Pudding is fine." Stiles held out his arm for it, and Derek handed it over. The lid was ripped off before he did, and the spoon was next. Stiles settled the cup in his wrapped arm and found that it was working enough, and he could at least hold the cup in place.

"Need help?" Derek asked.

"No. Where is Spencer?"

"Getting lunch."

"Ah, okay." Stiles spooned up a little pudding and sucked it off the spoon before looking at Derek again. He tried to come up with something to talk about, but there was nothing, so he just ignored everything that was going on with Derek and focused on his pudding.

"How are you feeling?" Derek asked a while later when Stiles was mostly done with his pudding. He had a cup of water he took sips from between each bite.

"I'm sore and hungry. But other than that, I am fine. How are you?"

Derek looked at Stiles like he was an idiot. Stiles just huffed and turned his head to look out the window. He really didn't want to deal with Derek and anything to do with him. He laid the empty cup over when he was able to move that way and laid down again. His leg hurt more now, and his arm was starting to ache. He needed to get some more painkillers in him.

"What's wrong?" Stiles asked when he could feel the way that Derek was slightly freaking out.

"You are acting weird."

"I'm tired, and in pain, I'm stuck in a room with a man I don't want to be with. What do you expect?"

Derek looked very shocked at the way that Stiles talked to him, and he leaned back, looking away from where Stiles was.

Stiles felt awful, so he just laid down again and turned to where he was on his good arm. It took a few tries for him to get settled. Thankfully his bad leg and bad arm were on the same side. His leg was wrapped as well, but it seemed that nothing had happened to his bones, so he didn't need to worry about moving the bone.

"I'm sorry," Derek said.

Stiles hummed a sort of acceptance.

"Stiles, I'm sorry."

"Dude, I forgive you for bothering me."

"That's not what I am sorry for. I'm sorry for breaking up with you."

"Derek, we don't need a death bed confessional. I'm fine. You are fine. I'll go on with my life. You go on with yours."

"Dammit, Stiles!" Derek yelled.

The door opened, and Peter cleared his throat.

"Nephew, I think it's time that you left. Stiles is in no condition to take on the guilt that you are trying to make him feel to listen to you. Go pout in a bathroom or something."

Derek growled at his Uncle, but Peter just glared at him until he left like a chastened child. Stiles turned and looked at Peter as the door shut.

"Where is Spencer?"

"Updating my sister on your recovery so far. Nothing big; she just wants to know that you are going to make a full recovery. Now, Stiles. Do you want to see Derek again?"

"No."

"Okay. I will make sure of that, and your father will be back in a few minutes. He's there with Spencer. How are you feeling?"

"I need painkillers," Stiles said.

"You have a pump thing there," Peter said as he waved his hand at the machine beside Stiles' bed.

Stiles grabbed the control, and he saw that it was set with magical stuff instead of regular stuff, healing and painkilling in one. It still wouldn't allow him to take more than he was allowed, but he could wait longer times if needed. He pressed the button, and he felt the potion entering his body. He groaned and relaxed more. He felt Peter coming over to him and then the hand on his back. He looked into the eyes of Peter. He looked worried.

"What's up, Creeperwolf?" Stiles asked.

"You worried us is all, Stiles." Peter's hand rubbed over his cheek with his knuckles. "We do love you."

Stiles knew what he meant. It was kind of weird when Peter was talking about his whole family, the people who had left him, other than Spencer, Cora, and Peter.

"Talia got upset over whatever Derek told her, and she chose to pull away from you."

"I still don't know what happened."

"Derek's been talking with Talia a lot since he agreed to become the next Alpha, and I think that it had a lot to do with you."

"You've not been spying?" Stiles asked.

"She keeps catching me," Peter admitted.

"You are her Hand, it's something that you need to know."

"And I am sure that when the time comes, I will be told. But at the moment, I'm fine not knowing."

Stiles nodded. He still wasn't happy with any of this. The second the bulk of the Hales dropped him, he had just them out. He had stopped caring, for the most part. Once bitten, twice shy, and all of that nonsense.

* * *

Stiles hated being as bound to the house as he was. Every time that Peter or Cora came back, they had a look on their face that they smelled something that they didn't like, but they refused to tell him what it was.

This was why Stiles was sitting on the small balcony that came off of his parents' bedroom over the garage. He was masked to where no one would be able to smell him or see him. He shouldn't be out here, he knew that, but he didn't care. Spencer was his only watchdog at the moment as Peter had gone to Talia's to grab a few things. If he wasn't back in the room before Peter got back, Spencer would start to sleep in bed with Stiles.

Stiles was thankfully able to tackle stairs, and he was working his way back to full health slowly, but he really didn't want to sleep with Spencer. The kid flailed around in his sleep, and that was asking for pain for both of them.

The rustle of leaves had Stiles turning to look. He had a gun in his hand, lethal bullets for humans, non-lethal for werewolves loaded and ready to go.

Blue eyes flared in the dark, and Stiles settled down but was ready to move if he had to. Two wolves had those eyes that should be in the area, Derek and Peter. If it was Peter, he was quick on getting back, so that pretty much left Derek. Unless it was an unknown.

Derek looked up as he stepped into the backyard, and despite Stiles' magic protecting him, Derek looked up at where he was and locked eyes with him. His eyes flared blue again, and then he was moving.

"Are you stupid?" Derek demanded.

Stiles kept his mouth shut. Derek should not be able to see him.

"Stiles, answer me, or I am screaming for Spencer."

"How do you know that I am here?" Stiles asked as he dropped his spell.

"That spell has never hidden you from me, ever. Not in sight or in smell."

"Why the fuck did you never tell me?" Stiles asked. He stood up, his body swaying a little as a bit of pain flared up his leg. He had used that spell a lot when dealing with supernaturals and hunting them. He had a huge flaw in his plans, it seemed. He wondered who else could see him. Was it something with the Hales? Just Derek? Blue-eyed wolves?

"It was just me. No one else could see you. I assumed it was something to do with how we are."

"Are? Dude, you mean how we were. A sample size of the people here is not something that I need to go off of. I need to make sure to test it in other ways. I'll see about the Henderson Pack in San Francisco and see if they can help me. If any of their people can see me." Stiles started to think about how he could make sure that no one could see him.

"Stiles, I promise, it's just me."

"I don't give a shit about your promises, Derek. I stopped giving a shit about them the moment you told me that you could never marry me. So leave and stop coming around. Peter and Cora have been keeping your secret, but it's out now. Leave this property and don't come back, or I will slap a stalking charge on you and get a restraining order."

Derek looked gutted. His eyes fell to where the ring rested on Stiles' chest. It was fully covered by the shirt that he was wearing, but Stiles was pretty sure that Derek could see the very faint outline of it under his shirt. Stiles resisted reaching up and pressing his hand over it.

"Why do you wear it?" Derek asked.

"It's a reminder that promises are broken, even by those we once loved. It's a reminder that nothing is permanent and that those who you love are the ones that can hurt you the most. It makes me remember that even though promises are made, they are always broken."

Stiles glanced at Derek's face, and he saw the pain there. There was one day where that might have made Stile try and soften the blow, but that day was long past.

Derek opened his mouth and shut it again. His head turning toward the tree line. Stiles looked as well and saw that Peter was standing there, looking pissed.

"Go inside, stiles," Peter said loud enough for human ears.

"I have this in hand, Peter."

"Of course," Peter said. His eyes flashed blue, and Stiles was pretty sure that no matter what he said, Peter was going to rip into Derek at some point.

"I just want to talk. Want to explain," Derek said.

"Yeah, that passed. A decade ago. I wanted to talk then, but you acted like being around me was the worst thing in the world at the time. I have a life; it's not here. Your life is here. No matter what, that's not going to change."

"You don't want closure?" Derek asked.

"I got it. It might not be the best closure in the world, but I got it, Derek. Without you. I made peace with myself for what was going on, and I learned how to move on. I am sure that someone out there has issues with that, but just like I learned to let go and stop railing at the world after my mom died. I learned how to move on after you dropped me. Now, leave."

Derek looked like he was going to say something, but as soon as he started to open his mouth, Peter growled. Derek nodded his head and jumped off of the balcony. Stiles watched him leave.

Stiles headed inside and down into the kitchen. He knew that he wasn't going to get away with not talking to Peter. He settled in at the table, and Peter sat down across from him.

"Do you really look at the ring like that?" Peter asked.

"Yes. My bureau psychologist hates that I look at it like that. She thought that I was hanging onto a relationship that was doomed. Fixating on it, and it was what was stopping me from moving on."

"Your second tells me that you don't pick up people. He wanted to meet the man who had hurt you so much, he said. We talked a lot while waiting for you to come out of surgery."

"Everyone wanted to see me and Derek meeting again, to figure out what happened. They are all profilers in some way, shape, or form, but they all have biases that stop them from seeing that I don't cling to what Derek was to me. I just...Is he here?" Stiles asked.

"You can't stop him from hearing and seeing you?"

"No. That's why I'm pissed. He tells me that it's just him, but I can't trust that. I use that spell to hide a lot."

"It is just you, but I am not sure that telling you why about that would help in any fashion except for you to trust in the spell."

"If you are telling me that Derek and I are Mates, I know that."

Peter looked at him with his mouth wide open, and his eyes were larger than Stiles had ever seen them.

"You knew that you still let him throw you away."

"No, I didn't know it then. I knew it when it took six months to control my magic again. Well, the whole thing was a year. It was six months of my magic slowly acting out and then six months of learning control. I don't know what made Derek get rid of me, but he knew that I was his Mate when he did it, and that's all that I needed to know about it."

"Talia finally talked to me. I assume it's part of why Derek is stalking you around. He doesn't like that you are hurt and vulnerable and that he can't protect you."

"Why should I care about what he wants?"

"You shouldn't. I'm just telling you why he showed up. Why he's been showing up. Do you want to know?"

"Yes and no. I stopped hating him a long time ago. That anger burned out of me when I was learning my magic again. I'm indifferent to him, and my therapist tells me that it's probably as good as it's going to get. Now, why does it matter why he left me?"

"He thought you cheated on him. He told Talia that you two fought, and he realized that you two would never work long term. But the crux of the matter was that he knew you were his Mate, and he thought you cheated on him."

Stiles thought back to a decade before. When he had been working out of the San Francisco Field Office and driving home on the weekends. He gave Derek all of his attention when he was there, and work had all of his attention during the work hours. He called Derek every single night. Derek knew every single aspect of his life that wasn't things he couldn't talk about due to work.

"Why did he think that I cheated on him?"

"He went to your place that one weekend. You had a concussion, and you weren't supposed to drive, so he went up to you. He found a condom in your bathroom and the smell of another man. He stayed for the weekend, and you were weird."

"Of course, I was. He was acting weird. I thought that he was worried about me. I was gone the week before that, and I allowed my friend Scott to stay there with his girlfriend instead of them having to rent a place. I always did that. They took the trash out on the day trash went but must have fucked again before leaving. I only have a single bedroom. It's not like they were going to fuck all over the house and not the bedroom, and I do mean they fuck all over. So he didn't even talk to me about it? He just assumed and then dumped me."

"Yes, I guess that something came up that told him that you weren't cheating on him, and now he thinks that things can be worked out."

"Yeah, no. He didn't trust me. I had been gone on him since I was fifteen, and we had been dating since I was nineteen. I was with him for six years before that night that he told me it would never work out between us. I had such a crush on him that I didn't date in high school. I never fucked around that first year at college. I was with him. I guess that's the issue with falling in love with your best friend, huh?" Stiles stood up and moved over to the stove. He braced himself on it. He had just assumed that Derek had fallen out of love with him. They had been engaged for a year, and the wedding had been mostly planned out. Thankfully the venue was just the Hale House's grounds, so it wasn't like they needed to rent a place.

The only thing that they had been out was time. The time that Stiles had spent making the perfect wedding for the two of them.

"If I had known, I would have slapped him up the head until he had some sense knocked into him."

"What came to light?" Stiles asked.

"Cora, I guess was talking to your father one day while at the station, and Derek had come inside. Your father was worried about the fact that you weren't dating. That he had given you a few years to get over Derek, but it had been ten, and you still weren't dating. Cora told him that even though you weren't a werewolf, most werewolves Mate for life. That you had found who you loved beyond all reason, and there was no replacing him."

"Dad always said that Stilinsk's loved for life, but I guess he thought that it wasn't Derek," Stiles said. He looked up to where his father would normally be, but he was working nights so that he could be with Stiles throughout the day.

"Talia is pushing him to make up with you. Alpha's do better if they have a Mate to help keep them centered."

"He'll just have to find someone else that he can stomach being with, Peter. I wouldn't trust him even if he allowed himself to be spelled to love me for the rest of his life."

"I will make sure that she knows that." Peter looked very upset about it, but Stiles knew that he wasn't upset at him.

Peter would never want Stiles to do anything that he didn't want. He wasn't mad at Stiles for choosing himself.

"My mom told me once that I loved Derek more than I loved them when I was a kid. The night that she died, she told me that I should never be ashamed of how I felt for him. She hadn't been lucid in weeks at that point, and then she told me that Derek was my future. I forgot about it for a long time. I remembered about six months ago. We were on a case, and a little girl was talking about her mom with me. She had just lost her to cancer, and her father went a little of the deep end."

"It's weird. The things that we do that remind of us certain stuff. How are you feeling right now?"

"Listless, why?"

"Let's watch a movie. You aren't going to be able to sleep, and neither am I if you awake. We might as well just watch something."

"Sure. Star Wars, the original trilogy."

Peter nodded his head.

* * *

"Stiles?" Amanda asked from the doorway.

Stiles looked up at her and frowned. She looked a little scared, and Amanda was scared of no one, ever. She had taken down a full-on berserker wolf without even an ounce of fear. She was only working as his assistant because of her being pregnant and not wanting to be in the field. She still helped with cases, and it had happened at just the right time with Stiles' former secretary leaving the area due to her husband's job taking him out of the area. Stiles was looking for a new one that could train with Amanda to learn his quirks but so far had not found someone he liked.

"I have Alpha Hale and her eldest male son with her. They are not in your appointment book."

"When is my next appointment?" Stiles asked. He had a sheet somewhere, but he tended to lose track of it and forgot.

"Not until tomorrow morning."

"I swore had I had one today."

"Yes, and the Unit Chief in question who wanted to talk to you is who you are meeting tomorrow morning. His kid got sick, and the wife is out of town, so he took off to pick them up and take care of them."

"Ah, yes." Stiles remembered the meeting wasn't dire, so he agreed that moving it, in that case, was just fine. "See them in and make sure that Security is aware that I might need them to escort out an Alpha and a Beta."

"Yes, Sir." Amanda rarely called him Sir, and Stiles liked it that way.

Stiles cleaned up the file he was working on, slipping it into the active case slot. He had an in and an outbox on his desk as well as a to get to and currently working on. It worked well for him.

"Alpha Hale, Beta Hale, what can I do for you?" Stiles asked after the door was shut. He didn't stand up until they were near the desk. He held out his hand to shake. Talia looked at him a little shocked, but Stiles just moved onto to Derek. He shook Derek's hand and then waved for them to sit down.

"I'm surprised you have an assistant."

"We need someone who helps with things when we are out of the office. It's a work in progress at finding a replacement for her, but it's working well at the moment. What can I do for you?"

"Normally, I would take no part in this, but my brother is being an obstinate asshole."

Stiles tried to think about anything that Peter had told him about, but there was nothing.

"Peter refuses to pass on messages from Derek to you."

"I see, and Derek can't send these messages on his own because?" Stiles asked.

Talia actually looked a little shocked that Stiles was asking that.

"He doesn't have your number."

"Oh, he deleted it?" Stiles picked up his phone and opened the contacts. He found the one he was looking for and sent a message.

Derek's phone beeped.

"There now he has it. Is that all?"

"I would like to talk to you," Derek said.

"I see. Well, I assume that you can do that when I am not working correct? They do not pay me to deal with personal issues while at work. My lunch hour has already passed, and I have files that I need to work on. Text me, and we can set up a time to meet that is outside of work hours."

"And what do you think is going to happen when I call your boss and tell him that you are hindering talks between two peaceful packs by ducking my son?" Talia asked.

"He would ask you about the Packs since I've not worked a case in a week due to court appearances. If it's something that needs my team to work on it, there is a form to fill out, and things will progress from there. Or a phone number to call if it's an emergency."

"You never used to be like this," Derek said.

"Things change in ten years, Derek. People change. I was always cruel to those I didn't like, but before, you didn't like them either so, you didn't see it. Please call the number or fill out the form on the FBI's website to get my team to work on whatever you have going on." Stiles gave them both his best shit-eating grin, and he just looked at them until they left the room.

Amanda was in there as soon as they were gone, and she raised her eyebrows. Stiles looked down at his phone to see that she had the speaker on. He shook his head and turned it off on his end. He glared at her and knew that something was going to happen with what he had just done, but he wasn't worried about his job.

"Feel like researching something?" Stiles asked.

"Sure."

"Find out who Talia Hale has been talking to and make sure that there is nothing going on. Legal means for now. We can do illegal ones if we find nothing. I'm gonna see what is going on with Derek since that night where I got shot."

Amanda glared at Stiles for those words, and he just shrugged and waved her out. She came back in a minute later with her laptop and dropped down onto the couch. She did a lot of her work like that with her legs up on the couch. Stiles didn't seem to care.

"Ah, well, it seems that the Hales are here in San Francisco and have been for two weeks. There is a big meeting happening between Talia and Steve Henderson."

Stiles picked up his desk phone and dialed. He waited for it to connect before he put it on speaker.

"I wondered when the Hales would go running to you."

"What happened?" Stiles asked.

"What do you know of the Hales? I know that you were shot dealing with them."

"You mean that they didn't tell you? Derek Hale used to be my fiance. He left me, though, and I only recently found out why. So tell me whatever is going on."

"My youngest daughter is pregnant, and there is a small fight about the custody of the child, and she swears it's Derek Hale's, but they are refusing to submit to a paternity test."

"When did this happen?" Stiles asked. He wasn't shocked when Steve told him that it was about two days after Stiles had thrown Derek away from his father's house.

"They tell me that it's impossible to be Derek's since he has a living Mate."

"Well, that's a very, very old wives tale that shit Alphas told people to make them think that they could never cheat on them. Last I knew, his cock shot sperm just like everyone else. So your daughter and Derek had sex, and now she's pregnant."

"There was a condom failure, and she forgot to take the morning-after pill the next day."

"Well, that would make a kid, yes. And it does fit with when I threw Derek off of my father's yard."

"You're his Mate? Kid, what the hell?"

"It's long and involved, but he's the one that ended the relationship ten years ago and only recently thought that he might have been wrong and wants to crawl back on his knees. I chose not to fall on his cock again."

Amanda looked like she was trying not to laugh her ass off. Stiles flipped her off, and she flipped him off right back.

"So, what's the issue?"

"My daughter doesn't want the kid but doesn't want her to be in the Hale Pack. Hale wants the kid. I'm all for letting him have it. It's not like he's going to get a biological kid another way, and I've got more than enough spares and heirs. I think that she's in love with him, and it's her acting out to try and get him to at least try with her."

"She does understand that even if he married her, he would never love her, right?" Stiles asked as he looked to the side to see outside. He hated this kind of shit. He wished that some people took birth control a lot more seriously. Though in this case, it seemed to have been on the girl's part and not Derek's.

"I've tried to tell her that. She's not a wolf; she doesn't understand it like the rest of us do. She's got stars in her eyes, and she wants to be the Alpha Mate."

"She's a fan, not a friend. Well, Talia seemed to think that I could fix this somehow, to you know their satisfaction. Look, call the number, get a thing set up. Amanda will make sure I get in to see you guys as soon as possible."

"Thanks." Steve hung up, and Stiles rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"I hate fucking idiots. Make sure it goes in sometime this week. Seems like this is not something that we want to fester. I could see that girl going crazy and doing something stupid. I'll call the team and have them on standby. I have no more court dates this week, right?" It was Thursday, so he hoped he would remember, but he wouldn't be shocked if he had forgotten the way the day had gone.

"No, I'll move the other meeting to next week and see if I can get them in here tomorrow morning. I'll tall Alpha Hale myself and set it up. Who do you want there from the Hales?"

"Talia, Derek, Gregory, Peter, and whoever is acting as Derek's Right Hand in training." 

"You got it. Get some sleep tonight. Head out early so you can wear yourself down," Amanda said.

Stiles nodded his head as he picked up his phone to call his Section Chief and make sure that he was fine with that. He really, really hoped that he was. He was going to be a ball of nerves until this was said and done.

* * *

Stiles wasn't shocked to see Cora coming into the room. Talia was first with her Right Hand behind her and then Derek. Normally, Talia's Left Hand would be next, but he was behind Cora since the Left Hand was being shared between the current Alpha and the one in training.

"Alone?" Peter asked as he sat down between Talia and Derek. They were not sitting in a normal fashion, but Stiles was okay with that.

"No, Trevor is escorting in the Henderson Pack."

Stiles looked toward the door on the other side of the room when it opened up an in came Steven Trevor as well as his two Hands and his daughter. A very small contingent, but this wasn't some big talk to stop a fight where the bodies were needed to show power. This was a stupid as fuck meeting. Stiles watched Steve's daughter as she looked at Derek like he hung the moon. She was a few years younger than Stiles, so she was more than old enough to understand that things were not like they were in fairy tales. Stiles blamed her mother because he knew that her father wasn't this way. Though she was the baby of the kids.

Trevor came in last, and before he could shut the door, it bounced off of someone. Trevor turned around, and he moved to the side. Stiles grinned when he saw that it was one of the few Directors in the FBI who was a Born Werewolf.

"Welcome, Sir," Stiles said. He started to stand but waved to stay down.

"I'm just here to listen. I will not take part unless there is something I feel I need to weigh in on." The Director sat down in a chair that was along the edge of the room directly across from where Stiles was.

Trevor looked at Stiles, who waved him to sit down beside him. It was supposed to be empty with Trevor at the other end of the table to give a buffer between the two Packs, but this would work as well.

"So we have an impasse here," Stiles said.

The daughter huffed and looked at her father before glaring at Derek.

"Alpha Hale, what do you want out of this?" Stiles asked.

The daughter huffed again, and it made both Cora and Peter roll their eyes. Stiles would have except for the fact that he was at work.

"I would like to keep the good-natured alliance that I have with Steve's Pack and sort this out peacefully."

"Good goals. Alpha Henderson?"

"Call me Steve, Kid. I want to keep the alliance as well and make sure that the kid ends up with the best person for her."

Stiles nodded his head at that. He looked at Trevor, who shrugged.

"Steve, can I speak to your daughter?" Stiles asked.

"Yes, you can. Her name is May."

"May, such a lovely name. So what do you want out of this?" Stiles asked.

May looked a little shocked. She looked at Derek and then her father before looking at Stiles. "I just want my baby to grow up loved by both of her parents."

"I see, and how do you see that happening?" Stiles asked.

Talia moved to open her mouth, and Stiles shot her a look. She sat back. Both Alphas had been made well aware that Stiles was the Alpha when they were in this room.

"Derek and I marrying."

"So, you don't care that he doesn't love you?" Stiles asked.

May gasped and looked like she was about to cry. Stiles tried not to roll his eyes, but he was pretty happy when Steve did. It showed that she was working up to some serious theatrics.

"He will come to love me." May sounded so sure of herself that Stiles almost believed her.

"Yeah, you know that's what most women were told in arranged marriages, right? Love doesn't come from just being in the same house together. Especially not raising a child, which is stressful on its own. Why are you so set on marrying Derek?"

"I know that his mate left him and that they are a piece of shit."

Peter laughed, and it made May look up at him.

"Sorry," Peter said as he reached for a glass of water.

"Alpha Hale, tell May what happened," Stiles said.

"Why me?" Talia asked.

"Because you love your son, and that means that you would make him look better than I would be telling the story."

"Derek made the assumption that his Mate was cheating on him. He ended their six-year relationship just a year before they were to be married, given the date that I was told was their set time to get married. He didn't tell his Mate that was why it was ending. He just told him that he didn't love him anymore. This was a decade ago. The night that he came to you in San Francisco was just after he had found out that his Mate wasn't going to take him back at all. That there was no fixing the relationship."

"I thought you finally figured out that you loved me!" May said. She was glaring at Derek.

"No," Derek said.

"So sabotaging the condom was wasted, then wasn't it?" May asked.

Stiles looked at Steve, who looked at his daughter like he wasn't sure who she was. She clasped her hand over her mouth and looked at her father with fear in her eyes.

"So the morning after wasn't taken on purpose," Trevor said.

"Clearly," Peter said.

"May, do you want the child?" Stiles asked.

"No. I never wanted any children. I've seen how my father's life was ruined because of them. I was going to make sure that the kid was shipped off to one of the werewolf boarding schools."

"Derek, do you want the child?" Stiles asked.

"No," Derek said.

"Okay, then. So who is going to take the child?" Stiles asked.

"Why did I say those things? I never meant to say them."

"This table is spelled to make the people at it tell the truth," Steve said.

"You set me up!" May stood up, and she was shoved right back down by one of the Hands. Stiles wasn't sure who was who, but then he really didn't care.

"I wanted to get the truth about everything. Do you not understand what this kind of thing could do to us? If Alpha Hale so wished it, she could demand you become part of her Pack. You are carrying the Heir's child, you stupid little girl. You would be nothing more than an Omega in the Pack, even though you are human, at the whims of what Derek wanted. They are both too honorable. I say that the Mate takes the child. I know that he will love her and make sure that the Packs get to see her."

"I don't want his stupid Mate to take my baby. I'll kill myself first," May said.

"How long have you been styling yourself as Derek's wife?" Stiles asked.

May looked at him with a glare, but she kept her mouth shut.

"I thought so. Before, it was just when he was set to take over as Left Hand for Peter, and now that he's Heir, he's a lot shinier, isn't he? He would never love you, even if he did marry you. He would resent you much like he seems to be resenting the child you carry inside of you. That's no house for a child to grow up in. Do you want the rights to see the child?"

"No," May spat at Stiles.

"Trevor, escort her out. She's not needed for this. I do believe that Amanda is waiting to take possession of her. Line theft carries a hefty fine, May. You might want to think about what kind of charges you are willing to submit to.

May was escorted out, and Amanda was right at the door to take her. Stiles looked at the Director to see that his face was pretty impassive. He wasn't shocked; the man had the best poker face in the world.

"So this is a pickle. Steve, do your Hands know who Derek's Mate is?" Stiles asked.

"No, I wasn't going to reveal that to them without his permission."

"What do you two think should happen to the child?" Stiles asked.

The two looked at each other and had a conversation that rivaled the eyebrow ones that the Hales had. Finally, the female nodded her head, and the male turned to look at Stiles. "We think that the Mate should take the child if they can look past that it's Derek's. In the event of the parents' death, a mate to one of them would take the child. It's how it's worked for Packs that have those who marry before finding a mate. Where does the Mate live?"

"Here in San Francisco for the next year and then in a year will be transferring to the new Field Office in Beacon Hills."

"He's an agent?" the male Hand asked.

"Yeah, I am."

The look on their faces was pretty priceless. They looked at their Alpha, who nodded and then looked at Derek with a look that could kill. They looked at each other again and then at Peter.

"Would you give him the child?"

"Yes. Stiles would make sure the child is raised within the two Packs and never withhold either Pack seeing her as much as they wanted. He was raised by his father after his mother's death and has learned from his father's mistakes."

"My only issue is if the child is a werewolf," Steve said.

"You would like someone else to be with him to help?" Peter asked.

"Yes."

"Well, that's where it goes really well that two of the Hale Pack wolves spend a good deal of time with him then. Cora and I both actually spent more time with Stiles than we do Derek outside of Pack meetings. Derek's little brother Spencer is human and likes him better. There is no animosity, outside of a little bit given we all just found out why Derek broke things off with Stile a decade ago. If Derek has no other children and doesn't take one of his siblings' children for his Heir, Stiles would make sure that the kid is raised that way."

"Stiles, do you want the kid?"

"I mean, have I been looking for a kid to adopt? No. But I agree that someone who is on the edges of each Pack would be best for her. Children are innocent, but sometimes, when smacked in the face with who their parents are, it can damage the other parent. I love Derek, I probably will always love Derek, but I can't trust him."

Steve nodded his head, and his face was full of understanding.

"So the Pack lawyers need to get together with yours, Stiles."

"Well, actually the Hale Pack lawyer and mine are the same, so Peter will handle both sides of that. I trust him that he'll make sure that no one is screwed over."

Steve laughed at that and looked at the female Hand. She nodded her head.

"I'll send her down to Beacon Hills to meet with you, Peter. We have a standard contract that we use when parents don't want the kid, and they are adopted by other Pack members."

"We have the same, and I'll just stay here. I don't have much going on at the moment that needs me in Beacon Hills. I am sure that Stiles won't mind me being on his couch for this."

"That sounds great. We can look into getting me a temporary place since I don't have a room for the baby when it comes."

"A crib in your room will be fine," Steve said.

Stiles looked at him.

"If it's a pup, they will want to be in the same room, and even if it's human, you'll feel better. You might not be a wolf, Stiles, but your instincts are pretty on par. The last time you came over to a barbeque, you watched the kids as much as the adults did."

"I remember a birthday cookout when I was sixteen," Stiles said.

The Hales all groaned, and the Henderson Pack members were looking at him.

"A cousin has twins, one is a werewolf, and the other is a human," Cora said.

"Sounds like a hell of a party," Steve said.

"Yes, well, Stiles and I were on child duty, and the only reason why we were able to keep them all contained was that Stiles did tricks."

"I was learning the more flashy things with my magic at that point in time, and it was quite interesting."

"Wait," the female Hand said as she leaned forward. "You are the one who did the fireworks show that had the kids entertained for two hours when the birthday twins' entertainment didn't show up? You are forever banned from drinking night for not telling me that this was him." The woman was pointing at Peter.

"I told you that he wasn't in the Pack anymore at that point, and that was all I was going to tell you. Despite my nephew's horrible choice, my wolf has never seen Stiles as anything other than my nephew, and I would have rather cut my own throat than to tell you anything like that."

"You can look at me all you like, but I told the Hales that I would never be an Emissary, and I meant that. If I had a place in the Pack, it would be more like a blend between an enforcer and the Left Hand. I'm more of the 'kill and ask questions of the corpse' kind of person."

"You'll do just fine with the kid," the male Hand said as he leaned back and looked at Peter with a glare.

"So, you entertained children for two hours with magic?" Steve asked.

"Fireworks that were closer to what Gandalf had at Bilbo's birthday party, including a dragon that did indeed chase down the kids. There was a little girl who ended up taking home a blue bunny that was made wholly of magic. Thankfully she understood that it was going to fade at some point. It was kept alive by my magic for three weeks, and when it disappeared, it turned to blue dust, and she still has that vial of it. She has an urn in her house even though she's an adult now. So yeah, I was popular and became the entertainment for kids stuff for a while in town until I had to beg off for school and the like. The twins still send me a letter each year on their birthday thanking me for making sure that it didn't suck. They stopped by the office a few months ago to thank me in person."

Stiles looked at the Director as he stood up, he nodded his head and then slipped out into the main area.

"So we have reached an accord. May will sever all parental rights, and Derek will keep the right to visit at the time and choosing of my own?" Stiles asked.

"Agreed," Steve said.

"Agreed," Talia and Derek said at the same time.

"Good. Then get out of here." Stiles watched the Henderson Pack as they left; none were hanging around, but it looked like the Hales were. "Or not."

"Stiles," Derek said.

"No. Our relationship is not something to be discussed during work hours. Peter has my apartment location; he can escort you there tonight if you must do this."

"I must."

"Cool beans. Peter."

"Yes."

"Get the fuck out of here then."

* * *

Stiles had dinner ordered in. He wasn't going to cook for Derek, that showed a bad precedent. Stiles hadn't even gotten good food for them. It was the best pizza in the area, but it was pizza. He had also not ordered in Derek's favorite but Peter's and, of course, Stiles', which Derek fucking hated, but he could stand to eat it. He loathed Peter's favorite even worse.

Derek probably figured that Peter was just going to drop him off, but that wasn't going to happen at all. 

"Knock knock," Peter said after he had opened up the door. 

Stiles shook his head but laughed when he saw that Derek wasn't entering the apartment. "Come in, Derek." 

"Thank you."

Stiles wondered where the man who had kissed him soundly in the middle of Stiles yelling at him for being an idiot was. He assumed that Derek was just like he used to be, but his own words about people changing came to his mind. 

"I have pizza on the way," Stiles said. 

"Sounds good," Peter said as he walked to the living room and dropped into the chair that he usually claimed. 

Stiles could see Derek taking in the scents of his apartment. There was only the smell of his own family there as well as Scott and Allison. They had been in for an evening, and he had given up his bed to allow them to stay over, so they didn't have to drive home in the dark. Living across the city was nice, but there were some nights that driving home wasn't worth it. Derek's nose wrinkled.

"Don't worry, there are no used condoms this time, I was still here when they went to bed," Stiles said.

Derek ducked his head down, and it took a few seconds for him to look up. "I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be."

"No, I do. I do have to be. I wrecked our life over nothing."

"Eh, it wasn't nothing to you." Stiles wondered if they were even going to get to dinner before Stiles ended up pissing off Derek so much that he left. It wasn't a good thing, but Stiles reveled in being able to piss people off if he wanted. It worked well when dealing with some Hunters. 

"Stiles," Derek said, and he sounded gutted.

"What do you expect from me, Derek? For a fucking decade of my life, you were the only person that existed to me. You told me nothing."

"You are good at getting what you want, talking people into doing things they don't want to do. If I had let you, you would have made me think that I was making up seeing the condom."

"So you threw away a six-year relationship over it? I've never been able to lie to you, Derek. You always know. So why didn't you just ask if I had fucked someone besides you?"

"Have you?" Derek asked.

"No." Stiles watched Derek's eyes widen in shock at that. 

"What do you mean? You...you weren't lying."

"Derek, I told you the night you proposed that you were the only person for me. My magic won't let me connect with anyone else. It took me over six months to learn how to use my magic again without you. You were and still are the seat of my magic. You called me your anchor for years, how are you shocked that you are mine?"

"I didn't..." Derek swallowed, and he looked like he was going to be sick. "I messed up."

"Yes, you did." Stiles heard the chime from his door, and he walked passed Derek into the foyer area of the apartment. He figured that since he hadn't had to buzz anyone up the teenager on the top floor was the one to deliver the pizza. He usually got sent to do it here so he could just slip up without having to wait to be buzzed in. Stiles opened the door and found that it was. He had his headphones in and was smiling.

Stiles shook his head and signed the slip he needed to before grabbing the two large pizzas. He snagged the ten from the area beside the door. He handed that over and grinned as the teen slipped away. Stiles shut the door and turned around to find Peter right there, taking the pizza from him. 

"Still carry my beer?" Peter asked.

Stiles bit his lips as he nodded. Peter was being a huge asshole, but Stiles was okay with that. He was more than happy that he was settled in his life without Derek. It had been hard for the first two years. Despite being apart, they were never really all that apart. Derek was needed with the Pack, so Stiles lived a half-life in San Francisco.

"Why didn't you ever tell me?" Derek asked.

"Tell you what?" Stiles asked as he looked up from where he was watching Peter dig in the fridge for a beer. He came out with two of them and a bottle of water. Peter's beer was one that Derek hated, so he would not drink it, but Stiles didn't mind it too much. Derek was handed the water, and Stiles sat down at the island. Derek sat down across from him, and Peter took a seat between them. 

"That you would never be able to be with anyone else?" Derek asked.

"Why should I have had to? My first thought wasn't that I should tell you that I would never be able to have sex with anyone else in my life. I assumed that you knew I would never want anyone else. Yeah, we were going through a rough patch with your family trying to make our wedding something that neither of us wanted, but we were doing good. You were listening to me; we nearly had it all worked out the way that we wanted it to be. You weren't even Heir at that point. I have no clue why your mother wanted to be in such control of the wedding and don't get me started on Laura again." Stiles still felt a lot about the wedding that they had been planning. He had the notebook with it in it. There were notes all around the edges where he had remarked on things like after looking at suits they had fucked for nearly two hours. 

In the past three years, Stiles had started to get into his box of things from his relationship with Derek. The bad memories were there, but they were faded, and the good ones were left. It was just like when he had finally got into the box with his mother's stuff. The horrible memories were faded, and the good ones came to the front again. 

"It would have stopped all of this."

"You know what would have stopped all of this, Derek?" Stiles asked.

"What?" Derek was looking at Stiles like he thought he was an idiot, but there wasn't the undercurrent of fondness there anymore. Stiles was used to that undercurrent. 

"You actually talking about the shit that bothers you. I mean, obviously, I was doing something that made you think that I was cheating on you for you to come to that conclusion. I can't change things that I don't know what I am doing."

"Sex," Derek said. 

"Sex...we didn't have enough sex? Or was it too much sex? What kind of sex issue are we talking about here?"

"You weren't jumping my bones like you used to when you came home."

"Dude, I get that you were hot as hell, and still are, but I was working a very busy job, and as soon as I got home every single time over the last three months before you broke things off, you had a list of wedding stuff that your mother wanted to talk to me about. It was kind of a mood killer, and it's not like we didn't have sex pretty much as soon as we woke up. So I didn't jump your bones as soon as I got home, and that meant I was getting sex somewhere else?"

Derek shrugged. 

"No, you wanna talk about this, you tell me about this. Why the hell is me not wanting sex as soon as I get home a bad thing? Why in the hell does it mean I'm getting sex from someone else?"

"You always wanted sex when you came home before that."

"Yeah, and I was working a simple job and being trained. I was also not able to make it home every single weekend. I was also twenty-five, and I still had a sex drive; I just wasn't in a fuck all the time sex drive. I was growing up."

"I get that now. Cora and I talked. She was pissed the whole time, but she explained how much the wedding stuff was getting to you and that even if you had wanted to have sex as soon as you got home, as soon as I hit you with wedding stuff, you would probably lose it. I didn't even think about that. I knew that Mom was going crazy with the wedding stuff, and it was upsetting you and -" Derek stopped.

Stiles understood right then what Derek had thought. It had been a small issue during Stiles' sophomore year of college, but he thought Derek had gotten over it all. It was like a slap in the face of how much Derek thought that he didn't deserve happiness. After what had happened with Paige and then what Kate Argent had tried to do to the family. Derek assumed he wasn't enough, and therefore Stiles would find someone better.

During winter break of Stiles' sophomore year, they had got into a huge fight. Stiles had gone home to his father's while Derek had retreated to his parents. Stiles had gone to him when they had calmed down and talked with Talia, Greg, and Peter there. A few things had changed, and one of them had been Stiles calling and talking to Derek every single day while at college; he talked about his friends he made there and made sure to always make sure that Derek knew that they were with other people or if someone asked him out that he turned them down. Derek had tried to feel less like he didn't deserve Stiles and push away those thoughts. When he did have them, and they were too loud, Derek called Stiles, and they talked. When college was over, and Stiles was at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Derek had moved out there with him. Stiles had been assigned to San Francisco, given his magic and ties, and started working in the supernatural unit. Coming home had been wonderful. Derek had proposed, and everything had been good. Until it wasn't, and Derek had left him. 

Stiles understood those voices in the head. He had them for years after his mother kept blaming him for her being sick. When his father had all but told him in a drunken rage that he had killed his mother. The Hales, Peter, especially, had helped him through that. 

The feeling of doubt was creeping in. Stiles tried to find out which part of his way of acting had done this.

"Stop," Peter said.

Stiles looked up at Peter, and then he looked down again. He was probably talking to Derek and whatever he was doing.

"Stiles, stop," Peter said.

Stiles looked up at him again and saw that Peter was looking at him. Stiles swallowed around the lump in his throat, and he nodded his head. He tried to push the voices away. 

"You both promised to talk to each other. You told Derek every single thing that bothered you that he did and that other people did. You were open and honest; he was hiding shit from you again. You were both under stress from the wedding planning and my sister trying to become a bridezilla. Then you had Laura horning in as well. You were working a high-stress job, so instead of asking you why you weren't fucking his brains out when you got home, Derek let the voices inside again, and they won. You did your hardest to hold up your end of the bargain, and he wasn't. I love my nephew, and I would kill for him, but he refused to talk. He refused to do what he could to make sure that the relationship worked. You tried. You kept on trying to get him to talk."

"Yeah, and what did that get me, but Derek leaving all of my stuff at my father's. Every picture, no matter what that had me in, it was there. That hurt more than anything else. He didn't keep ta fucking thing-" Stiles stopped himself, and he took a deep breath.

"Don't stop," Peter said.

"No, there is no reason to hash out what is long dead and buried."

"There is," Derek said. He picked up his water and took a drink. "When I finally told Mom and Dad what happened, Dad was pissed off. I told Mom first in a private meeting, and she told me that she wasn't going to keep it from Dad. So I told Dad. I can't fault him for the hell of a beating I took the next time in training. You did nothing wrong; I kept everything from you. You rightfully assumed that I was just stressed about the wedding and everything that Mom and Laura were doing. Mom apologized to me for that, and for a little while, she thought that she was the cause of our relationship's breaking. I just told everyone that I realized that I had fallen out of love with you and couldn't do through with it. It was better in my eyes than saying that you would cheat on me." 

"It's never a reflection on the person who is being cheated on. I know it feels shameful, but it's not Derek. Whoever is doing the cheating is ill-equipped for a relationship. If they are not getting what they need from their boyfriend, girlfriend, partner, spouse, or whatever they call each other, they need to leave. I fucking hate people who cheat." 

Derek nodded his head. He looked broken, and for a few seconds, Stiles wanted to comfort him. Stiles loved him; he would love Derek until he died, but he didn't trust him. Not anymore. It was almost as if Derek had cheated on him. There was no coming back from the pain that Derek had given him. He knew that being apart from Stiles hurt him. There was no moving on for him. Stiles was his Mate, and there would be no one else for him. Stiles wasn't going to force himself to be with him, though. 

"What else, Derek?" Peter asked. 

Stiles' first thought was that he was worried about what else there could be. Their relationship had been hashed out, and even though Stiles was pretty sure he knew it all, he was scared about what else there could be. 

"I don't-" Derek stopped and sucked in a breath. He picked up his slice of pizza before frowning at it. He took a large bite and chewed it. He was getting his thoughts together. 

Stiles was used to this. He would rather that Derek take his time and say what he meant than blurt out the first thought in his mind. 

"I talked to Spencer, Cora, and Peter about the baby. I understand why she'll be part of the Hale Pack but raised by someone, not in the Pack. I don't think I can raise her. I know that I can't without hurting her in ways that I wouldn't want. I would not be a good father to her. But I want to be in her life. Peter's already working on collecting the books you will need to help you raise her as the next Alpha and make sure that she's good at that, but I want to know my daughter. Before, she's just someone that I meet when she's a teenager. Where are you planning on living when you come to Beacon Hills?"

"I haven't looked at any place yet. Given that I now will need a room for her and other space as she grows, my ideas of where I want to live are changing as I think of stuff. The Director has already sent me the paperwork needed to change my insurance and everything with that. I don't want to live too far from Dad, but I know that I'll need to be close to the Preserve. Why?"

"There is a house that Mom bought recently. It was supposed to be used for visiting Packs and the like, but it's pretty close to your father. Despite not wanting to raise her, I do have to provide in the eyes of the Pack. We will get her added to the Pack insurance as well as yours. We can work out a supplement to your food and clothing budget, whether she's human or werewolf."

"Yeah, I don't mind help with that. I remember how many clothes Cora went through and the food that was consumed at meals. I know that Derek's parental rights will not be severed so that she's part of the Pack, and I would never keep her from Pack things. Send me the stuff on the house, and I will gladly see if I can live there. You won't pay bills, though, if you buy a house for us."

"Of course not. I would like to provide where she lives, though, you as well. So if the house is not what you want, we can find a new one. Price is no limit."

Stiles nodded his head. He remembered the house that they had been thinking of buying when they married. It had been close to his father's but butted into the Preserve a little. Stiles knew that it wasn't a place to stay, though, too many reminders. He knew why, though, that Derek wanted to be in her life. It would be as close to being with Stiles as he could get. 

One day, they might be able to be friends again. One day.

* * *

"Papa!" Emmy yelled as she came running down the sidewalk toward Stiles. He dropped his go-bag to the ground and crouched to catch the hyper four-year-old. She wrapped her arms around his neck and scented him, getting rid of the smell of travel and his team. She would be clinging to him for at least two hours, which was going to make dinner hard to do. 

Stiles looked up at Derek and smiled; Derek nodded back before slipping back into the house. Stiles stood up and grabbed at the strap of his bag as he did. He made sure to have a good grip on Emmy before he started toward the front door. 

The smell of tacos filled Stiles' nose as he closed the door. His bag was dropped to the ground, and he wrapped his free arm around Emmy. 

"Daddy said he's going to stay the night so that you can sleep in tomorrow and make up for sleep you didn't get while working."

"He did, did he?" Stiles asked. He followed his nose to the kitchen, where there was evidence of the two Hales having eaten their dinner. The taco meat was sitting on the table steaming, and Derek was just setting down the tray of cold cheese and lettuce. 

"I don't have to," Derek said.

"No, it's good. I wouldn't mind a few extra hours of sleep. I slept for crap on the case with everything going on. So yeah, you can take care of Emmy tomorrow morning and get her off to school."

Stiles ate dinner as quickly as he could as he could feel himself dropping off with being homeland having his daughter in his arms. Emmy was tired as well, falling asleep on his shoulder. 

Derek helped Stiles get up to bed before he settled Emmy into her bed. It was something like out of a romance book, but there was none of that there. 

Stiles grabbed his blanket and pulled it up to cover him up before he rolled to look at the bedroom door. Derek was hovering there. Stiles wasn't shocked that he had smelled the injuries on him. 

"You can come in," Stiles said.

Derek slipped into the room and shut the door behind him. Derek never entered the bedroom unless Stiles told him that he could. He sat down on the edge of the bed, and Stiles held out his arm. Derek snagged it, and Stiles laid it over his ribs where he had a bruised one. 

"UnSub took a swing at me with a bat. I blocked it mostly but not all the way. A few cuts and scrapes from the fight, but other than that, I'm good."

"Do you need me to drain the pain?" Derek asked.

"No. I have a good script. Might take you up on it in the morning when I wake up though in the time it takes for the pills to take effect."

"Okay. Sounds good." Derek's hand slipped down to near Stiles' waist and his other cupped the side of his face. 

Stiles closed his eyes. Things were good between them, close friends, but still, nothing like they used to be, even before the relationship had started. The touch was welcome, though. Stiles got a good bit of affection from the rest of the Pack, but something about Derek was just better. Stiles didn't think that he would ever be willing to start a relationship with Derek again, not a sexual or intimate one, but friendship was good enough for both his magic and Derek's wolf. 

"Stay?" Stiles asked. 

"Why?" Derek asked. He didn't move his hand away, just started to brush his thumb over Stiles' cheek. 

"Because I don't want to sleep alone. Nightmares. I've had them for the last two nights. Emmy doesn't need me freaking out and waking her up."

"Sure. I'll go down and get changed and then lay down with you." Derek leaned over and kissed Stiles' forehead before he went down to the basement. 

The basement was all Derek's, and it had been since Stiles and Emmy had moved into the house. It had first been just for when Derek was staying over when Stiles was working a case out of the area, but then he had just started to live there instead. It was strange, and it had taken Emmy a little to understand that they weren't together when she finally realized that even among wolves, their lives weren't normal. She knew that Derek was her biological father and that Stiles was his Mate, but she still had issues grasping that even Mates were not always together. She understood that her mother didn't want her, and it wasn't because of her just because she didn't want to be a mother. 

Stiles was just starting to fully drift off when the bed dipped. He rolled to his good side and waited for what Derek was going to do. They had shared a bed a few times since Derek had moved in four years prior but usually only after Stiles had woken up everyone with a nightmare. Stiles had them less when Derek was around. That was the only reason he wanted Derek in his bed. 

Derek wrapped his arm around Stiles' waist, keeping well from his ribs, and just settled in there. 

"This okay?" Derek asked.

"Yeah." Stiles felt his eyes drooping. He was going to fall asleep pretty quickly, and the only hope he had was that he stayed asleep all night. Hopefully, he would be able to just sleep through the nightmares or the magic that was Derek kept them away. 

And maybe if for a few minutes when he woke up, he could go back fifteen years and just for a short time think that everything in the world was right, he had his fiancé, and he would be happy for the rest of his life. 

# The End

**Author's Note:**

> I write fanfiction for fun. It's a hobby and a stress relief. I refuse to stress over my writing. What you see is what you get. Errors, plot holes, and all. Thank you for reading my story!
> 
> I can be found on MeWe [here](https://mewe.com/i/beccaqueen1), join me there and we can discuss my fics and whatnot.


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